


Time is the Enemy

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader-Insert, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 01:45:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11979489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Time is the Enemy

Spencer had been missing for five days. The team had already gotten two live video streams showing him being tortured - waterboarded, shocked, strategically cut, beaten. There was nothing this bastard wasn’t doing to the man Y/N loved. 

After retiring from the military as a Staff Sergeant, all Y/N wanted to do was finally be himself and start a life with the man he loved, and this fucker had possibly taken that opportunity away from him. From the moment he’d been taken, Y/N had been pacing the floors of their apartment waiting for a call from the members of Spencer’s team with any kind of news as to where Spencer had been taken.

Finally, they’d called him.

They were close.

Unable to stay still any longer, he raced down to the BAU and ran into Garcia. “Y/N,” she said breathlessly, the weight of Spencer’s absence felt heavily in her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been pacing the floors of our apartment for five days. I’m losing it,” he sighed. “Have you found him?” He peered over to the paper she was holding; it read 764 Mottwood Drive.

Garcia quickly pulled the paper away. “Yea, I’m about to go and give the team the address now. Don’t worry, Y/N. We’re gonna get him back.”

“In what condition?” He cried.

The technical analyst gave him a pitiful look and placed her hand on his shoulder before heading toward the round table room and the rest of the team. As Y/N stared into the room, his body simultaneously numb and on fire, he got a feeling in the pit of his stomach; Spencer didn’t have much longer. 

Without thinking, he turned around on his heels and ran down to his car, barreling out of the parking lot at light speed toward Spencer’s destination, praying that he would get there in time.

—-

“I pinged his location!” Garcia said excitedly as she stepped into the round table room. Once she handed him the paper, she turned around to see where Y/N had gone; she assumed he’d follow her. “Where did Y/N go?”

Notch’s eyes grew wide in knowing. “He was here? Did you tell him where Spencer was?”

“No!” She said, realizing what Hotch was thinking. Had Y/N gone after Spencer himself?

As the entire team headed toward the elevator, Hotch panicked. For all Y/N’s military might and intelligence, being personally involved always put extraction at a disadvantage. “Is there any chance he could’ve seen the address before you left?” 

“Maybe? Do you think he would’ve gone after Spencer on his own?”

The entire team stepped into the elevator to head down to the parking garage as Hotch spoke from personal experience. “If it was someone you loved, wouldn’t you?”

—-

The screeching sound of the tires against the pavement reverberated in his ears as the car came to a halt outside the unsub’s house. He knew he shouldn’t have been there by himself. Of course it was against protocol. But Spencer was in trouble and Y/N had the worst feeling that he didn’t have much time left. He bounded up the stairs and kicked the door in, immediately finding a door to the basement. In a residential neighborhood, the likelihood that Spencer would be anywhere but the basement was slim. 

Wooden stairs creaked under his feet as he pounded down the stairs and the unsub came into view. He held a knife above Spencer’s nearly lifeless body, but Y/N lunged at him and tackled him to the ground before the metal could come down to pierce his skin. Instinct took over as Y/N grabbed the man’s wrist and smacked it against the concrete floor of the basement, watching as the knife slid across the floor and away from the both.

Though the unsub was strong, Y/N was stronger and he pinned the man to the ground, lifting his clenched fist repeatedly and punching the man in the side of the head. It had been five days of worrying about the love of his life. Spencer had endured five days of only God knows what hellish torture. Each hit to the man’s face was a payment for each second Spencer spent in hell. Blood started to accumulate on his fist; he had no idea how many times he’d brought his hand to the side of the unsub’s skull. 

He only stopped when he felt someone at his back pulling him off. “Y/N!” Morgan screamed. “Y/N, it’s over!” Through tear-stained eyes, Y/N looked back and saw Morgan, his voice finally penetrating his rage. “It’s over. Go by Spencer.”

As the tears fell from his eyes, he knelt down beside his boyfriend, who looked so different than he did just days earlier. “Baby, I’m here,” he said softly. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Spencer lifted his head up as best he could, tears coming to his eyes after days of numbness. “Y/N? How are you here?”

—-

Spencer passed out from the pain just seconds after realizing that Y/N was there, and it was touch and go on the ambulance ride to the hospital, but he made it through. After nearly a week in the hospital, and a massive chewing out from Hotch for going rogue and putting not only Spencer and himself, but the entire team in danger, Spencer was finally able to go home.

As an army man, Y/N knew all about PTSD. After having to kill a child doing the bidding of the enemy, he could barely glance at a similar-looking boy without spiraling out of control, but after years of intensive therapy, he had come to make peace with the decisions he’d made and what he’d been through. Spencer would need similar therapy, but if anyone could personally understand, it was Y/N, and he would be there for his boyfriend every step of the way. 

It had been two weeks since Spencer was saved - a week after coming home, and he hadn’t had the strength to try therapy yet, so Y/N decided to stay home with Spencer for a while. He was the only one that Spencer would have any contact with. 

After all he’d been through, it was a wonder he was even standing, no less walking around and occasionally speaking. He got up to grab a glass of water while Y/N sat on the couch and continued reading his book. Nothing could have prepared Y/N for Spencer’s first true panic attack. 

When he swallowed a gulp of water, it must’ve gone down the wrong pipe, because he sputtered and dropped the glass, causing it to fall to the ground. It had barely hit the floor before Y/N threw his book across the room and bolted into the kitchen, catching Spencer just as he fell to the ground as well. Even something so simple as a taking a sip of water was bringing back memories. “Baby, it’s okay. You aren’t there. You’re here with me.”

Spencer buried his head into Y/N’s shoulder and sobbed, screaming about how it wasn’t fair. “I know it’s not. But you don’t have to do this alone. I promise.”


End file.
